Thursday, August 15, 2019

The Neo-Yevsektsyists

As I have blogged previously, the involvement of American Jews in anti-Zionist and anti-Israel activities preceded claims of an "illegal occupation" by over a half-century.

Many groups were involved. From assimilationists to Reform rabbis. The American Council for Judaism. Bundists and other various socialists and communists. Then Breira. On on to today's IfNotNow, JVP, et al.One group I left out, mainly because I felt uneasy including them because of the immoral actions they were involved in and the operations they themselves initiated against the their fellow brethren was the Yevsektsyia. It was founded in 1918 and abolished in 1930, when their appointed task was achieved - the destruction of the traditional framework of Jewish life.

The Tarbuth Hebrew educational system was suppressed while Yiddish was elevated. Zionist activity was prohibited. Immigration to Mandate Palestine was severely restricted. By the way, it was for a Hungarian non-Jewish communist, László Rajkin 1949, that the phrase 'international Zionism' was coined.

At the Yevsektsiya's second conference in July 1919, it demanded that the Zionist organisations be dissolved. After an appeal from the Zionists, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee issued a decree in that the Zionist organisation was not counter-revolutionary and its activities should not be disrupted. The campaign continued, however. In 1920, the first All-Russian Zionist Congress was disrupted by members of the Cheka and a female representative of the Yevsektsiya. At its third conference in July 1921, the Yevsektsiya demanded the "total liquidation" of Zionism.

David Collier has noted the parallels between then and now as regards a renewed Yevsektsyia phenomenon. I just hope these neo-Yevsektsiyists remembered that the Communists eradicated the old ones, usually through torture, show trials and hangings.^

“As a community, we are mostly Jewishly illiterate, and we maintain few specifically Jewish practices. When we engage in social causes and call it Tikkun Olam, we often use that term to invoke Jewish values and concepts without ever quite exploring them.”

===================================“Today, tikkun olam is part of modern, liberal discourse, even though its popularized connotation has little to do with its traditional meaning.”

SOURCE: The Real Meaning of Tikkun Olamby Curt Biren 2016 August 18, from the Jewish Journal of Los Angeleswww.seraphicpress.com/the-jewish-left-lies-about-tikkun-olam/http://israelseen.com/2016/08/23/curt-biren-the-real-meaning-of-tikkun-olam/

===================================“Tikkun Olam” has, in recent years, become the buzz phrase of American Jewish progressives. “Let us take care of the poor and downtrodden,” proponents say, “whether they are in our backyard or anywhere around the world — for that is what the Torah wants us to do.” To the advocates of “tikkun olam,” this Hebrew phrase has come to mean “healing the world.”

But if you read the actual text, you’ll see that the phrase means ensuring that the execution of law does not result in a disintegration of society. And in Jewish mystical texts, the phrase connotes a reconciliation between the spiritual and material worlds.

SOURCE:Being a Good Person Is Not the Be All and End Allby Pini Dunner 2017 May 5 www.algemeiner.com/2017/05/05/being-a-good-person-is-not-the-be-all-and-end-all/

...Jewish Leftists have spent decades trying to conflate tikkun olam with a particular set of Progressive policies, such that anyone opposing those policies ipso facto opposes tikkun olam. And as evidenced by that speaker’s choice of words, they have succeeded: Even their Jewish opponents now view tikkun olam as a “Leftist Progressive ideology.”

But by appropriating tikkun olam as their own exclusive property, Leftists have discredited the entire concept…

SOURCE:article by Evelyn Gordon, 2019 April 10 How to destroy Jewish and democratic values in one easy stepwww.jns.org/opinion/how-to-destroy-jewish-and-democratic-values-in-one-easy-step/

In light of Israel's refusal of entry to antisemites Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, this tweet, by Bernie Sanders, may be of interest:

https://twitter.com/SenSanders/status/1162018186818203648

While the immediate motivation for Sanders' comment is of course different than the larger set of circumstances and conditions that gave rise to the yevsektsiya, the underlying impetus for his comments - on a social and psychological level - are, I think, somewhat similar.

Of course, that does not begin to address his staggering ignorance of Jewish / Israeli history...

About Me

American born, my wife and I moved to Israel in 1970. We have lived at Shiloh together with our family since 1981. I was in the Betar youth movement in the US and UK. I have worked as a political aide to Members of Knesset and a Minister during 1981-1994, lectured at the Academy for National Studies 1977-1994, was director of Israel's Media Watch 1995-2000 and currently, I work at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem. I was a guest media columnist on media affairs for The Jerusalem Post, op-ed contributor to various journals and for six years had a weekly media show on Arutz 7 radio. I serve as an unofficial spokesperson for the Jewish Communities in Judea & Samaria.